Lawrence Corey

About the author: Lawrence Corey is professor of laboratory medicine at the University of Washington School of Medicine in Seattle, Washington, and head of the infectious diseases program at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.

Animal testing is essential to drug and vaccine research. In particular, animal experiments have been vital in discovering drugs that slow the progress of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), the virus that causes AIDS. Similar advancements have occurred in developing treatments for herpes and hepatitis B because of animal testing. New methods of research such as computer modeling and in vitro testing have helped reduce the use of animals in biomedical research in the last twenty years, but animal experimentation is still needed to prevent harm to humans from new medicines or vaccines. Without animal experimentation, human...